Renowned mathematician Dr George Geevarghese Joseph was awarded ‘Madhava Ganitha Puraskaram’ which was established to commemorate Sangamagrama Madhavan, a revered mathematical wizard who lived in Kerala during 1350-1425.
Dr J Latha, Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science & Technology said, our traditional wisdom should be linked with the modern technical knowledge. Vedas, Upanishads and Sanskrit literatures are treasures of Bharatheeya wisdom. They should be linked with the modern technical knowledge and included in the syllabus. Dr Latha was speaking on the occasion of presenting the ‘Madhava Ganitha Puraskaram’ to the world renowned mathematician Dr George Geevarghese Joseph in connection with the National Mathematics Day celebration on December 12, 2015 in Irinjalakkuda, Thrissur. The purskaram was established to commemorate Sangamagrama Madhavan, a revered mathematical wizard who lived in Kerala during 1350 to 1425. Except Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhiji, all prominent personalities who revealed the significance of Bharateeya wisdom to the whole world, are Europeans like Albert Einstein, Voltaire and Arnold J Toynbee. Dr George Geevarghese Joseph belongs to that galaxy of geniuses. Dr Latha added that knowledge is the real weapon. It is not the creation of any circumstance, but the fruit of dedication. Sreenivasa Ramanujam and Sangamagrama Madhavan showed this path to our countrymen.
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Even though Dr George could not come to Bharat and receive the award due to health reasons, he in a message sent from Manchester, stated that calculus and infinite series are the two major mathematical components which empowered modern mathematics. Bharateeya scientists who lived in Kerala had discovered them more than 200 years before Newton, Gregory and Leibniz.
Madhavan, a mathematician and astronomer was from Sangamagrama, a place in today’s Irinjalakkudal, Thrissur district. He is the father of the Kerala stream of astronomy and mathematics. He is the pioneer in using infinite series approximations for trigonometric functions which is called the “decisive step forward from the finite procedures of ancient mathematics to treat their limit passage to infinity”. He is considered as one of the greatest astronomer-mathematicians of the middle ages. Sangamagrama Madhavan’s contributions towards the study of infinite series, calculus, trigonometry, geometry and algebra were really unique and pioneering. Knowledgeable sources had suggested that Madhavan’s works may have been transmitted to Europe through Jesuit missionaries and merchants who used to visit ancient Muzris Port; that is how they might have influenced European endeavours in analysis and calculus.
—T Satisan
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